Strategic plan needed to cope with regulatory change
The Australian Prudential and Regulation Authority (APRA) is going through a huge cycle of reporting changes and financial institutions need to have a strategic plan to manage and deal with the changes, according to AxiomSL.
The regtech firm’s head of regulatory policy (APAC), Abraham Teo, said once APRA had gone through the Australian deposit taking institutions (ADI) regulatory changes, it would most likely move down to superannuation reporting.
“Change is coming within the Australian industry, it’s inevitable, APRA is pushing this and pushing it hard so everyone has to comply, it’s just a matter of when and how you manage it and how you deal with all the change management coming in,” Teo said.
“It’s about planning, figuring out what we need to do, having a robust plan, being able to have a strategic plan and recognising that reporting and regulatory reporting is not just putting numbers in a box.”
Teo said regulatory reporting was about the whole firm’s process, operating model, data, and why things were happening in the firm.
AxiomSL’s founder and chief executive, Alex Tsigutkin, said financial institutions should not look at regulation separately from the way they manage their enterprise.
“What regulators are trying to achieve is transparency and best practice of controls and enterprise management, as well as safety of the entire financial system. Which is really the way financial institutions should be doing business in the first place,” he said.
“If an institution recognises this they will avoid the silent approach of handling regulation and come up with a strategy not only where regulators will benefit but the institutions themselves and will establish best practice.”
Tsigutkin noted that fintech was also coming under scrutiny of the regulatory environment.
“We as a provider of reg-solutions would be helping fintech companies to cope with the regulatory disclosure and requirements and help it become more regulated in the future.”
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